1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens barrel assembly of a camera module and a laser apparatus for assembling the lens barrel assembly and, more particularly, to a lens barrel assembly of a camera module capable of improving workability and productivity by conveniently and speedily performing a process of permanently assembling a lens with a barrel without a pressing-ring process, a bonding coating process, or a bonding curing process and reducing production cost by reducing the number of parts and a laser apparatus for assembling the lens barrel assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in a current portable communication terminal such as a mobile phone, PDA (personal digital assistant), and a portable PC (personal computer), transmission of text, voice, and image data have been widely used.
Under the circumstances, a camera module for transmission of image data or image chatting is provided as a basic module to the current portable communicant terminal.
FIG. 1 is a perspective exploded view illustrating a general camera module 1. The camera module 1 includes a lens barrel assembly 10 in which a lens L is disposed. The lens barrel assembly 10 includes a barrel 10a of which outer surface is provided with a male screw 11 and a pressing ring 10b which is coupled with an upper end of the barrel 10a to secure the lens L. A light incident hole 13, that is, a lens exposing hole is formed on a central region of an closed upper surface of the barrel 10a to penetrate the upper surface
The lens barrel assembly 10 is coupled with a housing 20 having an inner cylindrical space. An inner surface of the inner cylindrical space is provided with a female screw 21 that is engaged with the female screw 11 of the barrel 10a. An IR filter 25 which filters light transmitting the lens L is disposed on a bottom of the inner cylindrical space.
A board 40 on which an image sensor 30 having an imaging region for imaging an object from the light transmitting the lens L is mounted is disposed under the housing 20. The lower end of the housing 20 is mounted on the one end portion of the board 40, and a connector 45 which is electrically connected to a display means (not shown) is provided to the other end portion of the board 40.
In a case where the image sensor 30 is subject to flip-chip bonding, a window 42 for exposing the imaging region is formed to be opened in the one end portion of the board 40.
A process of assembling the lens or a plurality of the lenses in the lens barrel assembly 10 of the camera module 1 is as follows. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a lower-end of the barrel 10a is faced up, and a plurality of the lenses are sequentially inserted and stacked in the arrow direction A from the upper portion to the lower portion of the barrel 10a. At this time, a spacer(s) 15 is disposed so as to maintain an interval between the lenses L.
Next, the pressing ring 10b is pressed and coupled with the opened lower end of the barrel 10a so as to secure the lenses L stacked in the barrel 10a, so that the temporarily-assembled lens barrel assembly 10 in which the lenses are temporarily assembled is obtained.
As shown in FIG. 3A, the lens barrel assembly 10 in which the lenses L stacked in the barrel 10a is temporarily secured by the pressing ring 10b is mounted on a binding jig (not shown). Next, while the lens barrel assembly is rotated in the arrow direction C, a boundary region between the inner surface of the barrel 10a and the outer surface of the pressing ring 10b is uniformly coated with a UV bonding material 9 by using a dispenser 3. Next, a UV curing process is performed.
As shown in FIG. 3B, in the UV curing process, the UV bonding material 9 coated in the lens barrel assembly 10 is cured by a UV beam illuminated from a UV lamp 6 which is disposed corresponding to the UV bonding material 9, so that the permanently-assembled lens barrel assembly 10 in which the pressing ring 10b is permanently secured to the barrel 10a is obtained.
In the conventional process of permanently securing the pressing ring 10b to the barrel 10a in which the lenses L are stacked, the pressing ring 10b is forcibly pressed and inserted into the lower-end inner surface of the barrel 10a. Therefore, the assembling task is very complicated, and excessively long time is taken to perform the assembling task. In addition, various assembling defects may occur.